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Thursday, January 10, 2013

Word Problem - Finding Unknown Fraction

Category: Algebra

"Published in Newark, California, USA"

Find the value of a fraction whose numerator is 4 less than its denominator and which when added to ½ the value of the fraction gives a sum of 3/10

Solution:

The first thing that we have to do is to analyze the problem very well because we will interpret a word statement into a working equation. 


Let     x = be the denominator of the unknown fraction

     x - 4 = be the numerator of the unknown fraction

From the word statement that "when added to ½ the value of the fraction gives a sum of 3/10", the working equation will be  





Multiply the both sides of the equation by their Least Common Denominator (LCD) which is 10x as follows















The numerator of the unknown fraction is 5 - 4 = 1.

The denominator of the unknown fraction is 5.

Therefore, the unknown fraction is 1/5

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